Lesson one: Case study

Key questions

What is a coral reef ecosystem like?

How is this environment being used, impacted and managed?

Aim

To produce a case study on the area of Menjangan Island, Bali, Indonesia to include:

• Location of the Menjangan Islands

• Location specific-information with the physical and human geography of the area

• The use of this area by people and resulting impacts

• The role and level of success of the ‘Friends of Menjangan’ in mitigating human impacts on the reef ecosystem.

Starter

Whilst watching this PCRF Documentary (seven minutes) make notes to answer the following questions:

• Why are coral reefs important?

• What is the project about?

• What are the scientists trying to do?

• What methods are they using?

Discuss your findings as a class.

Main Activity

Go to the ReefBase website or Exploring Nature website to look at a map of the worlds coral reefs. Write a paragraph to describe the distribution of the world’s coral reefs. Make sure you include as much evidence from the map and your own knowledge to do this. e.g.  Hemisphere, latitude and longitude, ocean names and direction.

Use Google Earth to find the location of Menjangan Island, Bali. Produce a sketch/diagram or a number of different scale maps to show its location in the planet (include world, national and local scale).

Now you are going to produce a case study of the Menjangan Island and reef. It will look particularly at the human and physical impacts on the reef, management of activities in Menjangan and the role of the ‘Friends of Menjangan’.

To do this, you have been given an activities sheet with a number of tasks and questions. Work in pairs to explore the area of study, its uses, exploitation and information on climate, using the ‘Menjangan Island virtual fieldtrip’ PowerPoint and the links from it to website resources.

As you explore the area, you must answer the questions given.  Remember, this is a case study, so extracting and using relevant facts and figures is important.  You will be able to make use of these in your exam.

Plenary

Now it is time to make use of your findings. You have 10 minutes to answer this exam question using your notes and answers to the activities from today’s lesson:

For an example you have studied, explain the management and exploitation of the area (six marks).